2004 Overview

• Global:
  Wind energy has seen a sharp increase over the last decade.
  Chemical waste storage of a soap and vegetable-oil factory in Lusaka, Zambia.
  Rain forest, Australia.
  Genetic diversity in maize.
• Africa:
  Professor Wangari Maathai, with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during his visit to Nairobi to attend a UN Security Council meeting in November.
  NASA’s Modeate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on 5 August 2004, showing fires across parts of Democratic Republic of Congo (top), Angola (left), and Zambia (bottom), in south-central Africa. Large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human and animal health, and natural resources.
  A goat herd runs away from a swarm of desert locust near Kaedi, Mauritania. Livestock are in competition with the insects for available grazing land.
  Our Changing Environment
  Betsiboka Estuary, Madagascar: Flooding and soil erosion.
• Asia and the Pacific:
  Dust and sand storms like this one in China have increased in North East Asia.
  Giant panda threatened by deforestation and poaching.
  Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica).
  Satellite images showing the area around Alitas, north-eastern Philippines, before and after the storm.
  Gangotri Glacier recedes.
  Our Changing Environment
  Beijing, China: Rapid urbanization.
• Europe:
  Windmills old and new, Netherlands.
  Landfill is still the predominant municipal waste treatment option in most countries throughout.
  Agricultural landscapes in the UK: small and large scale crop cultivation.
  Our Changing Environment.
  Almeria, Spain: From fields to greenhouses.
• Latin America and the Caribbean:
  Patches of tropical rain forest in Brazil.
  Reefs at Risk Threat Index in the Caribbean.
  Our Changing Environment
  Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela: Invasive species.
• North America:
  Grey wolf (Canis lupus).
  Our Changing Environment.
  Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec, Canada: Clearcut logging.
• West Asia:
  Ship wrecks contribute to water quality problems.
  Re-flooding of the Mesopotamian marshlands.
  Our Changing Environment.
  Saudi Arabia: Irrigation from fossil water.
• Polar:
  First Antarctic Specially Managed Area approved.
  Our Changing Environment
  Arctic Seas: Shrinking ice cover.
• The Global International Waters Assessment
  Map.
• Indian Ocean Tsunami
  Cement factory along the tsunami-battered coast of BandaAceh.
  Tsunami buoy being deployed in the Pacific Ocean.
  Rare Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphin rescued from a lake near Phuket, Thailand, where it ended up after the tsunami.
  

Feature Focus: Gender, Poverty and Environment

• Gender Matters
  Training women in decision making in the Himalayas.
  Bali Devi, one of the leaders of the Chipko movement, at the 2004 meeting of Women as the Voice for the Environment.
  Gender imbalance is often apparent at international meetings.
  Shanty town in Bangladesh.
  Deforestation increases the time women spend in meeting energy needs.
  Air pollution from biomass smoke mostly affects women and children.
  Transportation choices affect energy use and harmful emissions.
  Small scale farming in Mozambique.
  Gender-aware water policies are needed at every level.
  Flower workers are often exposed to pesticides. Holambra, Brazil.
  Men and women may be exposed to different hazards.
  

Emerging Challenges - New Findings

• Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases: Links to Environmental Change
  Irrigation of rice fields can create excellent breeding sites for mosquitoes.
  Aedes aegypti – the principal vector of dengue and yellow fever.
  Discarded plastic and standing water can increase the risk of vector-borne infectious disease.
  The incidence of onchocerciasis (river blindness) can be affected by land use change.
  The female deer tick, Ixodes dammini, is the vector for Lyme disease.
  Schistosome snails, Biomphalaria glabrata, shedding schistosome larvae which burrow into people and cause schistosomiasis.